A Ditzy Duo
by MegaTJ
Summary: Derpy Hooves never expected what she thought was an interest in the stars to actually be a crush on the pony who introduced her to them. Can she and her clumsiness survive an even clumsier trip through love?
1. The Mailmare and the Astronomer

The Mailmare and the Astronomer

"Are you sure you're up for the trip?" asked a tall stallion in concern. The Earth Pony removed his blue and red postage cap almost as if he were respecting the dead. A mare, more than half of his age and height nodded vigorously. "In this wind?" Another nod. Apparently, his most faithful mailmare wasn't going to back down from this job.

She saluted, simultaneously pushing her blonde mane from her eyes. "I can handle it, Chief, you bet!"

He sighed in futility. His mouth formed into a gentle smile, and he finally handed the Pegasus her mailbag containing a single parcel within. "I don't know why, but I know you can. Just be extra careful, Derpy."

Her lips parted to reveal white teeth underneath. She placed the bag's strap over her shoulder and tightened it. "I will, Chief!" With that, she left the small postage building for the night, clipping the doorframe with her flank.

Her boss watched as the wind picked her up like a leaf. He rushed out in a panic just in time to see her spin and take off into the torrent of rushing air. "Luna, watch over her."

Derpy fought against the wind with all of her might. She had gone out into much worse before, so this was just a walk in the park. Usually she wouldn't be too concerned with making such a flight for a single delivery, especially on a windy night. Those usually waited until morning when she could see. This particular package was very important, both to the postal service for which she worked and to her personally. Rarely did her schedule ever come into contact with mail going to the Northern Observatory, so it stood to reason she would jump at every chance to get anything up there.

Nopony knew why she only visited when she had to bring the mail. It was just easier to go when one had free time. Sure, there were ponies who asked, but they only got the simple reply of, "Just cuz." There were even times when she had gone out during thunderstorms, adding to everypony's confusion. How she even got there in one piece was a mystery that only she had the means to solve.

A secret lay in the skies above Ponyville she exploited everytime she flew in bad weather. Derpy climbed higher and higher until she found the strip of atmosphere that no cloud or weather condition ever crossed. Ponyville was but a spec when she reached it tonight, having rose with the cool air of the season. Now that the wind was both below and above her, she could enjoy a relaxing flight to the north mountain range.

The moon illuminated the ground below. Its silver light made everything possible to see, even after the lights of Ponyville were no longer visible. She glided northward, flapping occasionally along the way to keep out of the wind. Equestria slowly grew upwards with the elevation until eventually the Pegasus was even with the terrain. Mountains began to pass by. The farther into the wilderness she went, the more they became. Soon a forest of mountains were shielding the valleys from the wind. Finally able to, she climbed with excitement. She was nearly there.

The landscape kept rising and rising like a gigantic ramp into the sky until the largest mountain ever discovered in Equestria shot past the moon itself. Fortunately, Derpy didn't have to go that high. Her destination sat on a large, protected cliff only about a quarter of the way up. The Northern Observatory stood silent in the night. Most of it was darkened, except for the small speck of a window in the dome of its tower. She had her target now. Derpy immediately tucked her wings and streamed right to the window.

Inside the lantern-lit room worked a stallion at a table. He was wide awake despite the late hours. A pair of glasses held in place by his void blue nose helped adjust the vision of his cerulean eyes. He concentrated on the chart in front of him. Around it were hundreds of calculations and several instruments astronomers just like himself used for mapping stars. Every once in a while, he would add a dot here and a question mark there before placing his quill behind his ear.

He glanced out of his window and huffed. The clouds were still out there, taunting him with their opaque properties. One of the notes he had jotted down just before the overcast hit gave him an idea. He quickly grabbed his quill. In his rush, several papers and an empty inkwell hit the floor. He worked through the ditzy mistake, having not even noticed there was now a mess to clean up. The stallion sighed happily. Three hundred stars mapped and it wasn't even midnight. However, the satisfaction was short lived. He was out of calculations and the only way he could get more was to observe the sky, something he would have done in a heartbeat if the clouds weren't blocking his view.

"I'll just go to bed now, I think. Yes, bed—sleep—is essential. It is early. Maybe too early. I might wake up during the day." He shook his head in disgust at the thought. "I'll sleep later. Later is good. Later is best."

The astronomer leaned back in his chair, and promptly fell over. He was too distracted by his thoughts to even notice. The ceiling offered him no assistance with his formulas, so he closed his eyes to ignore it. Outside, he heard the distant howling of the northern winds over the mountain summits. He wondered if it was an omen. Just whether it was an omen, not so much about good or bad. His life was bland right now in the absence of a clear sky. His mind soon wandered off to use his eyelids as mediums to paint detailed pictures of stars, far away and near.

Too enwrapped in his mental art the day…night-dreaming colt failed to hear the faint sound of tapping coming from the other side of the massive observatory. The knocks soon stopped after the mare delivering them noticed the colt inside asleep on the floor. She tried pushing the window inwards, only she gave it too much and tumbled inside onto a table full of observation equipment. Stunned, she lay there in a daze. As she tried to collect her bearings, they only managed to become more jumbled when her weight combined with that of the many instruments around her caused the table's legs to buckle. She was sent, in a louder crash and forward roll, to the floor.

The loud clatter pulled the nearly-asleep colt from the depths of nodding off. He slowly climbed to his hooves just in time to see Derpy frantically rolling among the telescopes, sextants, and filters in an attempt to get off the floor. Curiously, he strolled across the observatory. She still hadn't manage to get up when he arrived, though it wouldn't matter if she did because he would have had the same reaction. He tilted his head to the side and studied her. He blinked three times across the span of twenty seconds, almost not believing she was flailing her hooves around on his marble floor. Sometime later, which could very well have been hours, he decided to lend a helping hoof by first speaking a very helpful word.

"Hello", he uttered calmly.

Derpy stopped immediately. She turned her head up to see the upside-down Pegasus standing over her. She rolled over, finally centering her gravity in her wings and not everywhere else. The mare struggled to focus both eyes on him even though one was enough for now. She smiled. "Hi!" Her voice echoed around the room. The colt followed it until it faded away. Once again looking at her he extended his hoof helpfully.

"Here", he offered simply.

"Thanks!" Derpy grabbed his hoof and jerked herself up, almost knocking the glasses from his face.

Before he could fully regain his posture, Derpy presented him with the package she dutifully delivered. He took it, eying the name Star Gazer in blue ink on the top. He examine every aspect of the small box: size, weight, shape, and the sound the contents made when he shook it. Satisfied, he opened it. Packing peanuts flew in all directions in his wake of crazy digging until he reached the bottom, where a small lens lay. Here he observed the lens, taking much longer now to make sure that the specifications he ordered were applied. Star Gazer looked back up to see Derpy had taken an interest in something besides him.

"Thank you, Derpy." He flew the box to his lit table. "Should any other pony attempted the delivery, I might have not gotten this tonight, or even ever."

Derpy giggled. "Welcome, Star!"

He grinned. Only she called him that. Well, she was the only one he allowed. Usually ponies just called him "Gazer", for he found "Star" too feminine for his tastes. "I take it you want to stay a while, like always?"

She nodded. "I wanna see the stars!"

At this he frowned. "Forgive me Derpy, but I can't show you tonight. The sky. It's overcast and my telescope is merely a reflector, not a radio array. I cannot see through the clouds."

Her disappointment only lasted for three-eighths of a second before she bolted out of the window. He followed her, stopping at the window to observe her moving the clouds from over the observatory to random places below the cliff. Star chuckled. Only Derpy would upset Cloudsdale's forecasts so they could see the stars beyond. It didn't take long before she was back in the observatory, breathing heavy despite the light work. She beamed happily, hoping she did good. She did very well from what she could tell from her friend's grateful applause.

"Astronomical, Derpy Hooves! This deserves a treat! How does…a few blueberry muffins sound?"

"Muffins!? Where!?" She zipped around the observatory at blinding speeds.

"I'll go get them, if you don't mind waiting here for a few minutes."

Derpy slipped on the floor, sliding right up to him on her back. She nodded embarrassingly. He left the semispherical room quickly, knowing what would happen should he be so much as a hair late after mentioning muffins to the gray Pegasus. While he was gone, Derpy got back to her hooves. A snack to go along with the treat of gazing at the stars was more than she could ask for even if she got both every single time she visited.

Star Gazer returned to find Derpy in the seat of his gigantic telescope, either having forgot about the muffins, which was unlikely, or waiting to eat while she looked through it. Whichever it was, he made his way up the few steps to the second level of the observatory. He set the tray of muffins down on the table at the far end of the circular platform that held the telescope. He created a gentle breeze with the help of his wings, wafting the smell of the muffins to the mare. She jumped rolled out of the elevated chair and dashed for the platter. Star let her dig in. He wasn't much in the mood for the baked goods and had an observatory dome to open anyway.

At the other end of the walkable surface of the platform, Star turned a large crank, which in turned rotated hundreds of gears. Derpy listened to the moaning of the ceiling as its doors split away from the end of the telescope it housed. The process of exposing them to the night sky took only a few seconds before a deafening _BOOM_ reverberated through the ponies themselves.

"I've discovered a few new stars since the last time you had peered through the telescope", he said from the vacant chair. "If you're ready, I can show you them now."

"Okay!" The gray Pegasus finished off the last muffin that managed to survive the last few minutes and rushed across to sit in the chair. She slid into the padded seat below the giant reflecting telescope. She looked through the lens, but didn't see anything. To her left, Star was too busy setting the telescope to help her out. Thinking that she was looking at empty sky, she looked into it again. Still, she saw nothing but black blankness. "Star the telescopes broken! I can't see a thing!"

She moved over to let him try looking. He recoiled in shock. "Impossible, no more than an hour ago was I able to see the stars! What could possibly have happened!?" He flew up to the frame of the mechanism, checking the exposed mirrors for any signs of blockage. He landed. "I don't understand…unless…" He checked the eyepiece to find it was covered by a lens cap he put there earlier. He smoothed back his already backwardly smoothed mane. "ID-10T error…"

"What's that?"

"Oh, never mind, Derpy, you should be able to see a star now."

Now that she could look successfully, she peered into the telescope. She gasped, what was in the field of view was a burning white ball. It sent solar flares outwards, as if trying to engulf her in a hug. "It's really pretty!"

"That's Hydrous X-19R. I found it after noticing unusual orbits in the surrounding stars", he explained. Using the list of coordinates he hung near the fine tuning dials of the telescopes, he readjusted it. "You should now be seeing the blue dwarf Terbium 89-2H. I recently calculated that it is the twin star of Terbium 89-2E using infrared readings from the Manehattan Observatory and the Amblesburg Radio Telescope. Apparently some three billion years ago the star split when a nearby star went supernova, creating the two stars we see now."

Derpy listened with great interest to his lectures. She understood a lot of it since he explained each part in detail at some point in her visits. Star Gazer had the voice many university professors longed to have: strong, soft, and definite. She could listen to him for hours, which she ended up doing along with seeing hundreds of stars. The only thing that stopped the sightseeing of the universe was their local star, which Celestia rose three minutes early.

"The night is never long enough", said Star over the sounds of the observatory's closing ceiling.

Derpy didn't respond, for she was too busy yawning. She slept the whole day just so she could make the late delivery and stay over, yet the morning always required her to need more oxygen. She donned her mailbag. "I'll see ya later, Star!"

"Derpy, wait!" the colt called suddenly.

She paused in takeoff to listen to what he had to say. He cleared his throat. "I'm currently waiting on a very important package from Cloudsdale. It should arrive in Ponyville tomorrow evening…I trust only you to bring it here. The other mailmares don't seemed to regard anything marked 'fragile', and everything you bring to me is in the most excellent conditions. Will you please bring it?"

Derpy was filled to the brim with the sense of importance. She nodded breathlessly. "I'll be here no problem!" There was nothing further for either of them to say, so she flew out of the window from where she had come in. She was so happy she barely noticed hitting her head on the way out. All that she knew was that she was going to come back soon.

**So this is the reason the update for Kindness is the Cure is delayed. It was getting hard writing for the same story over and over again because it felt like I was over using phrases. I was honestly starting to become stressed out to the point of losing my creative edge, which writing this new story gave back to me.**

**Trivia:**

**Star Gazer has only been in development for about six months, though his concept came far longer before that. I wrote him with a split personality, as I'm sure you saw when he was alone versus in the presence of Derpy.**

**This story came about on impulse as I needed a medium for which to take a break from Kindness is the Cure. Don't worry, I plan to update them both as well as begin posting newer stories frequently, with my first story taking priority.**


	2. Morning Aftermath

Morning Aftermath

Four hours into its travel across the sky, Celestia's sun brightened the Northern Observatory with so much light that the ponies inside had to constantly shield their eyes, as much of the architecture featured more window than wall space. The family that lived there was almost completely through with brunch by the time the latest riser of the house joined them. Star Gazer yawned drowsily when he entered. His presence was mostly unnoticed until he sat down at the dining room table.

"Good morning, Gazer", greeted a violet Pegasus.

He didn't respond to his mother. The only thing on his mind was piling himself a plate full of pancakes. In order to conserve as much energy as possible, he ate in silence. The colt's eyes were almost completely closed, depicting he had stayed up until dawn once again. Seeing his zombie state, his family resumed the conversation he interrupted by smacking head-first into the large dining room door upon his entrance.

"…as I was saying", said his sister Star Dust, the only unicorn at the table, "I've received my new orders and I will be shipping out to pilot the new zeppelins in four weeks."

"Excellent", praised her father, Nova Star, "The ponies in West Fillydelphia haven't seen flying like yours! Drop their jaws, Dusty."

She blushed modestly. "Thanks, Dad."

He turned his attention to his youngest son. "Star Void, are you ready for your archery tournament?"

The little Pegasus nodded. "I'm ready to win it!"

"Good, lad!" A yawn caught his eye from down at the other end of the table. The stallion sighed heavily. Now it was time to talk with the eldest child. "Star Gazer, are you awake enough to talk to your family?"

Star swallowed abruptly. "I suppose I am now", was the grumble.

Nova cleared his throat in some attempt to trick his mind that he didn't hear the grouchiness in the colt's voice. "Have you found a guest for the Exploration Banquet?"

The younger Pegasus stopped eating. "Indeed I have. Recently."

"Do we know this pony?" his mother asked.

"No", he answered simply.

"Who could it be?" Dust asked. "You never leave the observatory, and ponies rarely ever visit."

"Except for that deliverymare who comes at night", Star Void added.

Gaze jumped, propelling his hoof through a candelabra and anything else in its path. Everypony faced him. Whatever could get him to have a reaction like that captured all their interests.

Curiously, his mother asked, "What deliverymare?"

"Derpy Hooves", Star replied, "And she's a mailmare, not a deliverymare." He grumpily stood up to leave. "If you are wondering, I will be asking her soon."

He stormed out despite the few reasons for being angry, leaving a tense atmosphere behind. Nova shook his head in futility. "Why is that colt always so irritable? What has happened to him?"

Nopony got to answer, for a crash echoed from the hallway, making it clear that the clumsy Pegasus once again failed to miss the display of the solar system at the corner of the corridor. "Why must my privacy always be subjected to questioning", he asked himself as he returned the spheres to their display. "It should be _my_ business only if I will be taking a guest to _my_ banquet."

Nothing in the area didn't seem to want to talk to him, so he returned to trotting to his room. The observatory's massive hallways echoed with his every hoofstep. Drowsiness had begun to slow him down for the second time. He thought about how his family now knew something so personal in his life. "How could Star Void have possibly have known about Derpy's deliveries? Nopony stays up as late as I do…Must they be so meddlesome? My life is my business…"

He turned to the memories of the night before with his first and what would probably be the only smile of the day. The fact that daylight was shining through the many windows of his giant, lavish home pushed him into a sort of depression he only experienced when the most well-known star in Equestria rose in the sky. With no night sky to study, he had no motivation to walk quickly to the observatory. As a matter of fact if it wasn't for the lens Derpy delivered, he would have just slept until the stars came out again.

The doors of the observation dome gave way under the little pressure he applied. Inside he found that he wasn't the only pony with things to do in there. Cleaning up the mess that Derpy accidentally made of the table near the far window was the observatory's maid, a unicorn who everypony called Dust Sweep. The clatter of putting the instruments back on the recently fixed table drowned out the hoofsteps of Star as he walked to the telescope. Unfortunately, the blazing sunlight reflecting off the extra-shiny floor made it hard for the stallion to see the mare's cleaning cart.

A deafening din destroyed the silence throughout the observatory when he made contact. Sweep sighed. Now she had to clean up her cleaning supplies. Turning around with a count to ten, she saw Star Gazer flailing to get to his hooves amidst the see of spray bottles, feather dusters, and the other things that she used to clean the many rooms of the Astronomer Clan's home. She watched him struggle to figure out the simple task of standing up, both amused and equally annoyed. Had she the time, she would have kept staring. Since she was on the clock and would rather not stay for who knew how many more hours past her shift, she levitated the colt upright to his hooves.

Awkward silence immediately filled the dome. Star Gazer gawked at her the way he did everytime they crossed paths: as if it was the first time he had ever set eyes on her. Finally, he blinked, turned, and continued on to his precious telescope. At the top of the next level, he was relieved to see everything hadn't been touched. Just the way he liked it. If Sweep had moved even the largest object just ever slightly to the left, it would had taken him days to find it again. The lens he promised himself to install in the telescope twinkled on his worktable. He snatched up the green filter and flew up to the mirrors. Held in place by several beams was the main reflecting plate, riddled with hundreds of tiny squares just like the one in his hooves. He removed one of the clear ones to make room for his green one. The care he took in doing this surpassed even Sweep's when she had to dust the exposed mirrors that made it possible for the instrument to work.

"I see you showed no mercy on the muffins last night", the unicorn called up to him on his way down. She levitated up the plate from the night before.

"I require another batch for tonight", he told her, ignoring the evidence of the muffin massacre, "Chocolate chip."

"Yes, Sir", she replied absently.

_Chocolate muffins should sway Derpy's answer…_he thought. He added in his head with a chuckle, _Although I don't think she will need any form of persuasion._

**S**

Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, the very mare on the astronomer's mind burst through the doors of the town's post office. "Cheif!"

"In the back, Derpy!" he called from the sorting room.

She hopped the desk, taking a stack of evelopes with her to the other side. In the next room was her boss stacking large boxes into neat towers against the wall. She breathed heavily from her rush back from the Northern Observatory. The stacking stallion was used to it; Derpy Hooves was well-known for her quick overexcitement and fast-paced nature. When her lungs were no longer burning from the sprint home, she beamed in only a way that told all she had news. Her boss braced himself. Whatever it was couldn't even begin to cross his mind with the unpredictableness of the mare.

"There's a package going to the Northern Observatory from Cloudsdale...", she started in between last breaths of stamina recovery, "...The recipient wants me to deliver it tonight."

He rubbed his chin to aid in his decision. "Hmmm...I guess it can't be any worse than last night...And Night Flyer will be glad she won't have to fly that far on a Friday night...I don't see why you can't, nor why you would want to on your day off, but..." He crossed the room to the just-in mail. He rummaged through the yet-to-be-sorted pile of boxes and letters, until finally he pulled a box from the bottom. It was about as big as his head, though it didn't seem as remotely heavy. "Here you go, Derpy, and there's a letter here too...huh, it's addressed to you."

She took the letter first. She didn't recognize the hoofwriting, so she tore it open to find out who in Cloudsdale could have possibly sent it. The letter was blotched in ink stains. Whoever wrote it didn't seem to be able to keep a leash on their quill. She also noticed the slight rips and the shabby condition of the paper. It was almost like she wrote it, except that it was in much nicer condition. Figuring that she had judged the letter enough by its appearance, she read it.

_Derpy Hooves,_

_If my calculations are correct, and I have no reason to doubt them, you are reading this at 11:23 in the morning after your last visit._

She paused to glance at the clock. The second her better eye settled on it the fastest hand landed on twelve. The hour hand rested on eleven, and the minute hand just in between five and six. She blinked in surprise, then started again on the letter.

_I trust that you have gotten home safe. Those dastardly winds are nothing for a Pegasus to toy with. I write to you because if I had forgoten to tell you, I would like to request you deliver an important package arriving in Ponyville from Cloudsdale. I trust no other pony but you to bring it to me. I request that you deliver it no sooner than ten o' clock tonight._

_Hope to see you again,_

_Star Gazer_

_P.S.: Please excuse the mispellings and ink blots. I am used to mapping stars on a large chart, not writing letters to ponies._

The letter might have been a simple reminder, but Derpy couldn't help but giggle giddily at the fact he made sure she would return the next night. She folded the letter and grabbed up the light parcel. "I'm putting this in my cubby, Chief. For safe keeping!"

He waved her goodbye. "I'll see you tonight, Derpy!"

When the package was placed in the small box that all of the mail carriers of Ponyville used to quickly get their workload and head out, she left her place of work. Outside, the town was just beginning to wake up. Only a few ponies had gotten their carts set up for the day of selling on Stirrup Street. With a whole day of nothing to do ahead of her, the Pegasus took to the sky. Or that's what she intended to do. She started flapping early and instead of clearing the small aluminum overhang of the post office, she nearly went through it. Derpy fell to the ground with a brand new headache. She clutched the pain-stricken area with all over her might in hopes that the pressure would make the pain go away.

A passing pony saw what went down-mainly her-and rushed to help. "Hey, you alright?!" She looked up and found Sugarcube Corner's newest part-time worker looking down at her. He blew his mane out of his eyes.

She nodded with a blush. It was one thing to hurt herself in front of a pony she knew very well, but a complete different thing to embarrass herself in front of a stallion who had been living in Ponyville for only a couple of months. She heard him sigh, but didn't look up again. In the back of her head she wanted him to go away, something that wasn't about to happen. The mare remained on the ground. Maybe if she ignored him he would lose interest. That's when he stuck his hoof into her field of view of the ground.

"Come on", he said brightly, "As my marefriend says, 'What's the point of falling if you don't get back up?'"

His perfect impression of Pinkie Pie snatched Derpy's attention from the ground back to his smiling face. She felt significatly better knowing that this unicorn had a marefriend, although she couldn't figure out why. Pushing the thought aside, she accepted his hoof and let him pull her back to her hooves. He examined the part of her head she used to attack the overhang.

"Yep, that's a red spot alright. Not like a tomato, more like a...underripe tomato. Lucky ya don't have a knot. That'd be a major bummer."

"...Thanks Strings", Derpy managed to say. Her embarrassment melted away pretty quickly after that. He was the only one left that saw her accident, so now she didn't have a reason to be red-faced.

"What do ya say to a bowl of ice cream, Derpy? On the house."

Anypony would have accepted the offer to free ice cream in a heartbeat, but Derpy hesitated. She tried to get her lazy eye to focus on Strings, but it ultimately drifted to a family of squirells in a nearby tree. "...Why?"

"Ice cream makes everything more awesome. Kinda thought you might want some after meeting the ceiling."

The hesitation refused to move out. That feeling she had before came back full force. She shook her head. "No thanks, I gotta get going!"

Strings watched her fly off in a hurry. "Okay…that was pretty weird."

Derpy didn't slow down until after she knew he could no longer see her. She never felt so uncomfortable like that before. Especially not when somepony was offering her ice cream. She shrugged it off as how tired she was. A glance at the clock hanging from Clockwork's Gears told her she still had more than seven hours to burn before being able to go back to the Northern Observatory. It would have just been easier to get Star's package now and fly it there now, but he did say he wanted it after ten. When she thought about, she wouldn't be able to see the stars anyway, so she resolved to aimlessly flying around Ponyville in boredom.

That soon proved, well, boring. A yawn escaped her mouth, giving her an idea amidst removing herself from a cloud she carelessly forgot to miss. Using the same cloud that just hindered her flight path, she made herself comfortable on top, and promptly fell asleep.

**S**

Back with Star Gazer, the stallion worked through the annoying daylight on his telescope. "Insufferable lens! Luna, how could such a small addition to the lens plate possibly upset the calibration so much?" He turned his large wrench another twelfth of a turn. He wiped away some of the grease from his hooves. "There, now let's find whether or not that did the trick." On his way back to the telescope's chair, he accidentally kicked with all of his might his steel toolbox. He fell over in pain. "Oh, to hay with it all!" he lividly screamed. The shouts echoed around the dome for a few seconds, leaving him to rub away as much of the stinging in his stubbed hoof as he could.

Down the hall his father heard him cursing his luck for all he was worth. The stallion shook his head. "I really need to have a talk with him…" Forgetting his lunch of a very intricately crafted sandwich, he started for the largest room in the observatory. The inside was quiet despite being yelled at only moments ago. Apparently the walls had no comebacks for the torrent of insults. Nova Star chuckled at the fact that he had the same speechless trait when it came to his son.

Speaking of the Pegasus, he didn't see Star Gazer anywhere. Usually he was tinkering with the telescope in some way or another. However, he was nowhere in sight. Nova climbed the stairs to the upper level, where the sounds of a ratchet rattled through the metal frame. He followed them to a pair of hooves jutting out from a small gap in between the telescope and the floor it pivoted on. He stooped down to see his son, ratchet in both hooves and a mirror in his mouth to reflect light up to the bolts he turned with all of his Pegasus might. Nova slid under with him. Having built the telescope himself, he knew even more about it than Star did. At first he was ignored, but that was only until he grabbed a ratchet too and began to work alongside the grouchy pony.

He didn't receive any complaints. If there was one thing Star Gazer ever respected his father for, it was how much more skilled at working the tools of construction than he was. "Star Gazer", he said after a good twenty turns.

"Yes?"

"I would like to talk to you about your banquet."

Star stopped working. "What about it?"

"I don't know why it is such a sensitive subject for you, but it seems that—"

"I would rather keep all of the details to myself?"

"Well, yes. Why so much secrecy?"

"I feel my privacy is invaded", Star answered simply.

Nova chuckled. "Is that all? Haha! I must be getting paranoid in my old age!"

Star grinned for his father. That took his attention away from his hooves. The ratchet slipped from his hooves and dropped right to his face. Luckily his father saw and caught it just before diagnosing the colt with a bloody nose.

"See? Your old man still cares about you."

"I never once doubted you did."

"Then why so much attitude towards everypony?"

Star adjust his glasses, turned back to the top of the gap, and fell silent. The atmosphere tensed up again. The older Pegasus sighed to himself. "Okay, then would you tell me about this…Derpy Hooves, was it?"

"She delivers all of my telescope parts that arrive in Ponyville. She's the only mailmare I have ever trusted. She spends nights here and I show her stars and planets and the like while educating her on astronomy."

Nova couldn't see Star's blush, but could almost feel it through the way he talked about the mare. "And you're sure she will accept your invitation."

He nodded with a smile. "After what she is delivering tonight, she will have no choice but to say 'yes'."

**Pretty eventful for a mainly characterization chapter. Plenty of plot stuff too I think definitely maybe.**

**I promised on Twitter yesterday that this chapter would be up last night, but I had a small crisis to deal with and couldn't get the last few words written before passing out from taekwondo.**

**Also, today's my birthday, so why not publish something today? Maybe a nice review would do for a nice present? Hint hint, heheh.**

**Trivia:**

**Star Gazer was first a quiet pony who kept to himself, but now that I developed more, he's become a Pegasus with an attitude for some reason.**

**Derpy Hooves is one character that I love to write for, especially in her moments of clumsiness.**

**We see Strings in this chapter today because he is the first OC of my Colt Six to meet Derpy.**


End file.
